Evolution of the texture along the EPICA Dome C ice core, Physics of ice core records

Abstract: New measurements of ice texture made along the EPICA Dome C ice core, together with a review of previous studies of fabric and microstructure, are pre-sented. Mean grain size increases steadily with age, and so depth. However, sharp decreases are observed con-temporary with each climatic termination. These sharp decreases are believed to be mainly driven by the change in dust content between glacial and interglacial periods. C-axes steadily clustered with depth toward a vertical sin-gle maximum. However, a sharp clustering of the fabric is observed during termination II ( ≈ 1750 m), suggest-ing the presence of shear in the upper part of the core. Moreover, below 2812 m, large variations of the fabric are observed from sample to sample. Migration recrys-tallization may affect the ice polycrystal for the lowest part of the core